Environmental justice: The standpoint of Pakistan

The term environmental justice has become the buzzword of the twenty-first century. It has become popular in the backdrop of the negative impacts of climate change on the world. Environmental justice, also known as climate justice, has been defined by United Nations as “a shift from a discourse on greenhouse gases and melting ice caps into a civil rights movement with the people and communities most vulnerable to climate impacts at its heart.” Thus, climate change is no more only a scientific concept but by way of climate justice, it has gained traction in the legal domain as well. This is because the deteriorating effects of climate change specially target the rights of the already deprived segments of society.

Moreover, not only within a country but also climate change has varying impacts on the rights of the global north and the global south. It affects the developed countries having better economic and social conditions far less than the developing countries that already perform poorly on all indicators of human development. This is the reason that Pakistan, a developing country, though has a meager share in greenhouse (GHGs) emissions still it is one of the most vulnerable states to its effects. Globally, Pakistan ranks at 135 for its emissions,2 however, for its vulnerability it ranks at 5th spot on Global Climate Change Index3, clearly elucidating the threats confronting the country. These threats are not limited only to the environment of the country but extend to its people as well.

When the environment gets affected, it is the people who suffer in the form of the violation of their fundamental rights of life, liberty, health, and profession. Likewise, another concept that environmental justice entails is that polluter pays to the aggrieved. Meaning thereby it is the duty of the developed countries to fund the developing countries in order to help to deal with the threats of climate change and to carry out their adaptive strategies. As the developing countries hardly have the economic condition to cope with the challenges of climate change, such funding makes it easier for them to do so.

But developed states remain reluctant to lend their hands to these funding programs making it difficult for developing states like Pakistan to adapt to new environmental-friendly technologies and techniques. As a result, the rights of the marginalized segments get violated with impunity from those having a neo-liberal capitalist mindset both within and outside the country. Therefore, the need of the hour is that the state institutions deal with this threat on a war footing by working on coordinated policymaking, its enforcement, and apprising the world of the necessity of environmental justice. But its social system will be otherwise not only the political and economic fabric of the country be in tatter as well.

Climate change and its negative effects have become the site of concern for the world at large. It has been declared one of the biggest threats to mankind. In order to deal with this danger, the world has joined hands and established many working bodies and conventions on it. These bodies and conventions include UN Environmental Program, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement, and Montreal Agreement. However, among all these efforts the factor that has been in the focus on human rights. The effects on human rights especially of those belonging to the global south have been neglected.

It was only the Sustainable Development Goals 20152030 that brought forth climate justice as a point of discussion and ponder. These goals attached climate change with civil and hum rights by providing ways to deal with it In the context of Pakistan, through proper funding and adaptation. the realization of the damaging impacts of climate change and the importance of environmental justice dates back to 1994 when for the first time a supreme court ruling was given for the protection of the fundamental right to life enshrined in Article 9 of the constitution by carrying out environmental justice. It was a landmark case that became famous as the Shehla Zia v Wapda case. It opened the door for them as seen in safeguarding constitutional rights through the protection of the environment by invoking public interest litigation Asghar Leghari vs. Federation of Pakistan (2016). By having a keen analysis of Article 9 and Artic case (2015) and Imran Tiwana case le 38 of the Constitution of Pakistan threats of climate change it becomes clear as day that along with they are directly proportional to each other. Calamities and anthropogenic-induced catastrophes ultimately breach the inherent rights of the people.

The state though has a working mechanism to deal with these threats through the Ministry of Climate, National Climate change policies, and climate change council but there are still certain elements lacking the urgent need to endeavor on enforceability nationally. The re is and to make the country’s voice heard internationally. This is because without proper policy implementation the anthropogenic acts of environmental degradation would not end and on the other hand without efforts at the international level adaptation to green energy and techniques will not happen.